yashsingh1/xdaforums huggingface dataset:
[AT&T Samsung Galaxy S II SGH-I777] eep2378:
Slightly off topic, but why would or what would make Samsung elect to change the way the kernels work like they did from Captative/I9000? I mean the I9100 and I777 are similar(same cpu, etc) like the I9000 and Captivate are.

Btw, I'm sure this is a question you've struggled with too, but wouldn't it be easier for samsung too? One less thing that needs changing
[AT&T Samsung Galaxy S II SGH-I777] eep2378:
Those are 2 pretty big problems. Kk6 works fine if you just want 3g and have no need to use your phone as a(get ready for it) PHONE! ;)
[AT&T Samsung Galaxy S II SGH-I777] iXNyNe:
short answer: carrier influence
[AT&T Samsung Galaxy S II SGH-I777] eep2378:
If that is really the case, ATT is dumber than I thought(I really thought they were dumbasses already)
[AT&T Samsung Galaxy S II SGH-I777] jjesusfreak01:
Current CM9 builds are using hacked Gingerbread kernels (correct), and as such we have sources, meaning that even if the Hellraiser hack mods userland files, the touchkeys could be fixed with a kernel mod, correct? I know you won't work on it as its a lot of work for a temporary hack, which I understand. I'm just wondering from a technical perspective if its possible?

If it isn't too difficult to explain, what do you mean by "lack of i777 audio libraries"? Do the i9100 and i777 use the same DAC(the mc1n2), and do they use the same audio libraries? Is it just that the use of different libraries would require more in-depth tweaking than Hellraiser does currently, or just an i777 specific build?
[AT&T Samsung Galaxy S II SGH-I777] Entropy512:
Not unless something has changed - they were using hacked GB kernels and had VERY bad results. Every recent release (up until codeworkx stopped releasing because of the noobs) used an initramfs repack of an I9100 ICS kernel.

Same DAC, but the wiring of inputs and outputs to the DAC is different. This is why microphone audio in calls is screwy when you run I9100 audio libraries on an I777.

The easiest and most robust fix is to swap in audio libraries from an I777 like Hellraiser does. However, since we don't have I777-specific audio libraries that are compatible with ICS, we can't use the easy way out that Hellraiser did.
[Asus  Eee Pad Transformer Prime] Diamondback:
Hey guys,

as we have so many open questions on Wifi perfomance I decided to do some personal research about it.

I am using the following devices:

ASUS Transformer Prime:

German model, 32GB, gray

Updated to .33 firmware

HTC Desire HD

German one, did not have any Wifi issues to date

Running a custom Sense 3.5 ROM from the based on HTC Sensation XL

I tested the Wifi performance all the time with an app called Speedtest.net

Additonally I used an app called Wifi analyzer to measure the strength of the signal.

My internet connection is a ADSL 32/1 line, this means I can get download speed of 32Mbit/s and upload speeds of 1Mbit/s.

To have a good range of values different distances to the router were tested.

Here are the results:

Directly beneath the router:

One room away, wifi needs to travel through walls:

Two rooms away, wifi needs to travel through walls:

Thoughts on the data

One thing I

did

notice was the rather large fluctuation of the Prime's signal. The signal quality changed a lot even when holding the device still.

This happened to the DHD too, but not as extreme.

Another thing is that the signal quality of the Prime is

highly

influenced by the direction you hold the device. AnandTech said the same in their review and it seems it's true. Again, my DHD doesn't show this behaviour.

You

do

have to note, that the Wifi on the Prime was always faster compared to the my phone, so I don't see an issue with the speed.

I could not make a real range test yet, but with the .29 firmware my DHD outperformed the Prime on the Wifi range. The DHD connected to networks which weren't seen by the Prime at all.

I am going to test the range with the new .33 update (which seemed to improve Wifi for me) in the next days.

Another quite heavy point is the not about the Wifi speed in general but more about the usage itself.

Coming from a 1 Ghz singlecore phone, everything is way faster on the Prime, especially the market.

Working with the Android market on the Prime is super painless. Everything opens instantly, no long loading times (almost none at all).

On my phone everything takes ages to load (even things only related to Wifi, like the thumbnails)

So compared to my phone "internet" is way faster on the Prime.

Conclusion

In my opinion the Prime's Wifi is perfectly fine. It may suffer a bit under the metal backplate, but ASUS solved this problem with the second Wifi antenna quite good.

The only thing which we should be concerned about is the range. But I

do

have to say that Wifi range can be easily tweaked via software (yes this is

true

)

So maybe we can tweak the range after having custom kernels.

If you have any questions, feel free to ask :)
[Asus  Eee Pad Transformer Prime] nyijedi:
Nice post. My results weren't nearly as good as yours. My Prime was somewhat on par with my Galaxy Nexus (still a little slower, though), but got killed by my iPad 1. I'm starting to wonder whether the iPad 1 simply has a beast of a WiFi radio and outperforms other mobile devices. I'll try to post detailed test results when I get a chance.
[Asus  Eee Pad Transformer Prime] demandarin:
thanks, good test you ran also. I was gonna say the same thing that even though the signal strength went down as you moved further away, it didn't directly affect the speed of it at all. in fact Prime consistently held faster speed rates. I've noticed the very sensitive fluctuations in wifi signal strength in prime also depending on how you hold it. Regardless this has still never affected the experience or speeds seen going into the Prime. I did a similar test against my ipad1 and yielded similar results. no matter the range or if prime showed a lil weaker signal strength, it didn't affect the download and upload speeds. in fact. even with prime having the weaker signal strength, it still pulled the faster speeds.

glad to hear we will be able to tweak the range through software. also having the dual antennaes could give us a major advantage over the other devices in the end as far as range goes. I did try your one simple test before you mentioned on the wifi switching antennaes things. as I covered both up signal dropped. then covered only one and then the other and so on. so the switching of wifi antennaes does seem to work pretty well. Custom kernels could use all of this to the advantage of Prime.

---------- Post added at 09:55 AM ---------- Previous post was at 09:50 AM ----------

I think it may of been you I told of how my ipad1 test comparison was the opposite. that the Prime showed dramatic increase in wifi speeds and was on par with the range, for the most part. what I can say is that Ipad signal strength seemed more stable while Prime was sensitive and fluctuated. regardless though even with a slightly lower signal strength the prime wasn't affected in terms of speed. it still in fact pulled substantial faster speeds than my ipad1 regardless of signal strength. strange but true. you would think with lower signal strength it would affect speeds but it didn't with the Prime. :eek:
[Asus  Eee Pad Transformer Prime] Diamondback:
Yep, I did that too, works wonderfully.

In kernel sources you can adjust up to what reception levels Wifis are still displayed as connectable. We had that problem with a Desire HD update were HTC screwed something so it connected only to way stronger Wifi than before.

Kernel devs fixed this :)
[Asus  Eee Pad Transformer Prime] geinome:
Issues

I did hear about while reading an article that the prime had issues with its productions models.

one reviewer had 2 before his 3rd finally worked. However im looking forward to testing this beast out come the 12th!:D
[Asus  Eee Pad Transformer Prime] movielover76:
Thanks for making my decision easier

I've done the same test, however with my prime

I get about 20 mbps in the same room as the router

5 mbps one room over

and 2 - 3 mbps max three rooms over, I also often get disconnects in this room.

I can deal with slightly less range, but the speed dropoff was killing me.

Now that I know my unit is obviously defective, I can exchange it for a new unit

If I can get a good unit with results like that I will be satisfied.
[Asus  Eee Pad Transformer Prime] FunkyMcBain:
When I did some tests on mine, router in living room, Prime on second floor at the furthest point, so probably like 50 feet goign through the floor and a bunch of walls, I was transferring data TO the Prime via FTP at about 2.7MB/sec (Megabytes) That was on .29
[Asus  Eee Pad Transformer Prime] nyijedi:
I'm having the exact same experience as you. However, I'm not so sure that the Prime is "obviously defective" if you have these types of issues. The last thing I want to do is return my brand new device and wait to find a new one, or RMA it and wait to receive a new one, and then still have the same problem.

I wish Asus would say something if they did in fact make a Wifi change since their earliest models. If they'd confirm this, I'd be more than happy to exchange my Prime for another one, but I can't see going through the whole exchange process with no guarantee that I'll see any type of improvement.

EDIT: It appears that those of us noticing issues with the WiFi range don't have defective units. Check out this review, which discussed the speed comparison between a confirmed defective unit and a non-defective one:

http://www.anandtech.com/show/5178/an-update-on-transformer-prime-battery-life-wifi-issues

Basically, the defective unit wouldn't pull more than 2 Mbps anywhere. It wasn't strictly a range issue - the thing just was capped at about 2 Mbps. The non-defective unit fixed this cap of 2 Mbps, but still had issues where the device downloaded slower than other devices at a further distance from the router (the example the reviewer used was that his original Transformer would get 34-37 Mbps, while the non-defective Prime would get 10-16 Mbps in the same location).

So for those of you considering exchanging your Prime because of poor WiFi range, I think you'll be disappointed to have the same issue with your replacement.
[Asus  Eee Pad Transformer Prime] movielover76:
While I agree that I can't prove it beyond reasonable doubt, the reality is I live in a fairly small apartment, it can't be more than 30 feet, admittedly through a few walls from my router to my bedroom, every other wireless-n device I get still gets near 20mbps in my bedroom, and other people are reporting much better results and I can't imagine they are in a house or apartment meaningfully smaller than mine.

So the performance is not acceptable when I paid for a premium android tablet, I'll exchange it and hope it gets better, if it doesn't I'll just return it.

A tablet is useless without wifi, I'm willing to accept a little bit of range problems, but Wireless-N speeds at 30 feet max like I'm getting is just not acceptable.

In that article he never mentions still experiencing the sharp drop offs I'm experiencing, and theirs nothing saying that everyone who has wifi issues has exactly the same issue, his first unit was probably preproduction, which would likely have different issues than the production models

Maybe it will fix it maybe it won't but it won't hurt trying. I'd rather take a chance and try to get a better unit.
[Asus  Eee Pad Transformer Prime] denverbuckeye:
Great review Diamondback! This is almost identical to the results I posted about my Prime WiFi. I had an "early model" in the beginning of December that I traded in for the first shipment at Gamestop and most of the WiFi issues seem fixed. Signal strength fluctuates quite a bit more than my Kindle Fire or iPad. Speeds are about the same or better 90% of the time.

With all the complaints out there about WiFi, I don't know if we were just lucky to get good units or if the complaints are a bit overblown.
[Asus  Eee Pad Transformer Prime] nyijedi:
I hear you. Please keep us posted on how the replacement fairs in comparison to your current Prime. I'm sure many of us, including myself, would love to know.
[Asus  Eee Pad Transformer Prime] denverbuckeye:
Keep in mind there are more variables in your tests than simply signal strength and distance. Have you looked at the channel your router is using? These days - especially in apartments - there is a LOT of traffic on the wireless spectrum. WiFi Analyzer can help you narrow the list of channels to use and through trial and error I was able to pick a channel that improved my performance at a distance by quite a bit. But I live in a high-rise condo so you may not have the same types of issues.
[Asus  Eee Pad Transformer Prime] nyijedi:
This is a good point, as I also live in an apartment complex with a decent amount of wireless traffic.

However, if you have 4 different devices at the same location, and 3 of them pull comparable speeds while one of them (e.g., the Prime) pulls much lesser speeds, doesn't that suggest the problem is more with the Prime than with your network settings?

Also, when traveling, one doesn't have the ability to tweak network settings, so the Prime's weak WiFi is more problematic in this type of situation.

Sorry if I come off as *****ing here. I love my Prime and I'll be keeping it despite its WiFi shortcomings, but it obviously does irk me a little bit.
[Asus  Eee Pad Transformer Prime] Diamondback:
A little tip for all of you with issues. What about trying another Wifi channel?

"Wifi Analyzer" has a

great

feature where it shows you which channels are crowded and which are mostly free.

This way you can find a channel with the least interferecens by other Wifis.
[Asus  Eee Pad Transformer Prime] Jarbings:
Have a look here: http://xdaforums.com/showthread.php?t=1420886&highlight=wifi&page=3

Also take into consideration, that you compare the brand new device and first of a new kind of devices, with others that already had 10-15 updates.

Also make sure you are testing in an "clean" or at least not changing environment. So if on of your neighbours is doing a large file transfer on an neighboring channel during your tests you will see a massive impact on your tansfer-rates.

So far i can say the general WIFI is stable and fast, only the coverage seems to be a bit low compared to other devices. But hey it is an 11n capable device that could in theory be fine tuned to very good reception depending on what features are already used and what not. But i was not able to get any info on what antennas are inside, where they are, what chip is used etc. Any infos on that?
[Asus  Eee Pad Transformer Prime] the_game_master:
this is all good and dandy now go test this again with Bluetooth enabled and a headset or bt headphone paired.
[Asus  Eee Pad Transformer Prime] jdbaker82:
I just now realized this is probably why my speedtest significantly improved because I turned off Bluetooth sure enough that is why.....
[Asus  Eee Pad Transformer Prime] setite:
OP. Load up some songs in Google Music, play them over bluetooth while you do these tests and post those results.

http://xdaforums.com/showthread.php?t=1423180
[Asus  Eee Pad Transformer Prime] movielover76:
I always use wifi analyzer when setting up my network and it's configured for the clearest channel available, I know that part of my situation isn't ideal, I can see 7 aps from my laptop right now, but most are on channel one, two on channel 6 (one that's the apartment right underneath me) and I'm on channel 11 which only has one other ap and it's very weak.

Like you said I think the fact that other devices gets better speeds points clearly to the problem being with the primes Wifi, maybe it doesn't handle interference as well as other wifi devices and others have less interference in their tests, which could explain the higher speeds they get.

<B>Update:</B>

Well I took a $14 gamble ( the cost of shipment back to newegg ) for a RMA replacement, hopefully the next unit will work better, I'll put up an update when I get it back, assuming they can get a replacement and don't just refund my money.

At least if I get it back and get the same performance I'll know for sure it's a limitation of the device and not my particular device being defective, I'm a little OCD so that would drive me nuts not knowing as it has the past week lol.
[Asus  Eee Pad Transformer Prime] theoilman:
I think another thing everyone should be testing is wifi stability, not just raw speed at a given moment. open wifi analyzer on the prime and another device, go to the signal meter, and compare how long each device can hold onto the signal. In a few videos I've seen where people do this the other device is very stable, but several times a minute the prime's needle goes momentarily to 0, even though they started at similar levels.
[Asus  Eee Pad Transformer Prime] nyijedi:
I can confirm this behavior on my Prime. My cable company provides WiFi service to its customers by putting WiFi transmitters on the nodes in the street. At work, both my Transformer Prime and Galaxy Nexus can connect to the network. When using the signal meter, my Galaxy Nexus maintains a steady signal, while the Prime constantly bounces around. The Prime's signal is actually a little better than the Galaxy Nexus', but it's not stable.

Does this type of behavior give any hope to a software fix, since the Prime pulls in a decent signal but it's not stable, or do people still think we're screwed because of hte aluminum backplate.
[Asus  Eee Pad Transformer Prime] demandarin:
that's what this test has clearly shown. along with tests I've ran also with my Prime, Ipad1(which its wifi is stronger than ipad2), and my Atrix4g. Despite the Prime signal strength and range being very sensitive and fluctuates alot, it still consistently pulls down fast speeds. even faster than my other devices. on my other devices it showed wifi having more bars or whatever and the prime had lower. this was when i moved further away from the router. the prime, even with its lower reception strength at that moment, still pulled faster download and upload speeds. plus another thing that helps is that, using wifi analyzer, I can see that no other neighboring signals are on the same channel as me. So i have that advantage of not having interference. People who keep on stating all Primes are showing consistently slower speeds are WRONG. that may hold true for your device n a few others. but lots more came on and said their wifi performance is just fine. Maybe its you who needs to rerun your tests or adjust something in your router/network settings. plus as far as stability is concerned, my Prime has not dropped connection once since being connected on 12/22. I leave my wifi on on 24/7. no matter where I'm at in, in relation to my Netgear router, I have no problems with stability or speeds or even range. my prime wifi range can reach the same points as all my other devices with no issues. plus once we get the custom kernels with wifi values tweaked, this will even get better. We technically have an advantage over other devices because we have dual wifi antennaes. the developers can greatly exploit this advantage. one possibility is instead of having the antennaes switch, they could tweak them tl work together as one for an even stronger signal reception. a lot of things developers can do with this. just as Diamondback said before, the Desire HD had this exact same problem. Developers went in and tweaked the kernels and the wifi is now nearly perfect. hope the same can go for GPS also as its a combination of hardware and poorly written software that's causing the issues some are reporting. GPS is an across the board issue. wifi is only affecting a small minority of people. most I've seen reported wifi is working fine for them. most I've seen complain about wifi are the same ones who complained about other issues..lol. :p
[Asus  Eee Pad Transformer Prime] jotka2:
I can't agreement more.. The problem with Prime is not the range, but unstability of the signal

Wysłane z mojego Transformer Prime TF201 za pomocą Tapatalk
[Asus  Eee Pad Transformer Prime] hbk19:
^

Thus, the problem becomes whether this is a software or a hardware problem. It's great that the Prime can pull off good speeds, but if the Wifi isn't stable or has bad range, then we need to test this with a software fix. We won't know whether it's a software or a hardware problem (or a mix of both) until someone attempts this, which won't happen until, I'm assuming, kernel devs come up with something.

The same could be applied to the GPS issues as well, I guess. So it's a good thing we (will) have the option to unlock the bootloader.
[Asus  Eee Pad Transformer Prime] theoilman:
in the GPS thread they were talking about how the GPS should hypothetically work if you point the screen at the sky if the back was just blocking the signal. they came up with the theory that even when you do that, the back is creating an "echo chamber" of signal that's creating a small area of high interference within the tablet itself. this could also explain the lack of wifi stability if it holds true.
[Asus  Eee Pad Transformer Prime] BongoBong:
Has anyone with those drops in wifi signal tried live streaming high quality video for any extended periods of time? I haven't tested much on my signal (more speed tests) but I have used my prime to live stream 720p video (twitch.tv) quite a bit and have not noticed any pauses or skips which I would expect to see if my connection was dropping periodically. Or does streaming somehow prevent quick losses of connection from causing skips?
[Asus  Eee Pad Transformer Prime] theoilman:
in streaming the video is "buffered", meaning more of the video has downloaded than the second you are watching, so if the signal drops off for a second or 2, you will likely not notice.

it is good to test not only through something like wifi analyzer, but also test with a real world example such as streaming video though. if you could, test your stability with the analyzer though and maybe we can see a correlation between stability and ability to stream or download large files?
[Asus  Eee Pad Transformer Prime] nyijedi:
I can't speak for streaming (I'll test it later tonight), but I can speak for downloading large files. I downloaded a 1 GB file over my local network on both my Prime and my Galaxy Nexus from about 30 feet away from my router. The Prime downloaded the file at about 5-6 Mbps while my Galaxy Nexus got between 10-11 Mbps.
[Asus  Eee Pad Transformer Prime] nunyabiz:
One thing I noticed: The wifi meter in the status bar would show 2 bars, but if i went into settings/wifi and touched my router SSID it would only show 5meg fair connection, but other times it could show up to 72Mbit with 3 or four bars sitting in the same place, and still say fair connection.
[Asus  Eee Pad Transformer Prime] FunkyMcBain:
My Prime seems to have no issues maxing out my cable connection, 12Mb, but this might be more a function of wifif router qulity than the Prime
[Asus  Eee Pad Transformer Prime] BUYMECAR:
Just one brief thing I thought I'd share.

I changed my 2.4 GHz to strictly G as opposed to the combined B/G/N and my speeds have improved greatly.
[Asus  Eee Pad Transformer Prime] nyijedi:
Do you mean you changed it to strictly N? Limiting my N network to G speeds isn't a "solution" I'm willing to try.
[Asus  Eee Pad Transformer Prime] nunyabiz:
I will try it when I get home. My internet connection is only 20Mbit and most of the other devices in my home are G anyway.
[Asus  Eee Pad Transformer Prime] BongoBong:
Ok that makes sense.

I left wifi analyzer going for a few minutes and didn't see any large fluctuations. "Beast" is my router and its close but through a wall from me.
[Asus  Eee Pad Transformer Prime] BUYMECAR:
The only 2 devices that utilize N in my home are my laptop and my Roku and both are connected to my 5 GHz band which is strictly N.

So I thought what the hey, let's give it a shot. Now my speeds on Prime are consistently 24+ when I was getting 3 Mbps avg after the newest firmware update.